Al-Qaeda Linked Group takes responsibility

An al-Qaeda-connected group says that it has carried out a major attack on the Malian city of Boulikessi and has control over an army base.

More than 30 soldiers were killed in Sunday’s attack, according to sources quoted by the Reuters news agency, but that figure was not confirmed by the authorities.

On Monday, the same group, Jama’a Nusrat Ul-Islam Wa Al-Muslimin (JNIM), says that it focused the army in the historic city of Timbboektu.

In a statement that responded to Sunday’s attack, Mali’s army said it “reacted forcefully”, before “retreating” – what a tactical retreat suggests.

“Many men fought, some to their last breath, to defend the Malian nation,” added the explanation.

Reuters told a limited local source that Jnim had left many victims and “had made it clear”.

The attacks, the last sign of collapsing safety in Mali and the wider Sahel region, came after the American African command of the United States had warned about growing efforts by various Islamic militant groups operating in the Sahel to gain access to the coastline of West Africa.

During a press conference on Friday, the Commander of the United States Africa Command (Africom), Gen Michael Langley, described recent attacks in Nigeria, the wider Sahel and the Lake Chad Basin as a deep disturbing, warning that the access of the groups to the coast would considerably stimulate their ability to smuggle and weapon.

It is thought that more than 400 soldiers have been killed by militants since the beginning of last month in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, Reuters reports.

Additional reporting by Simon Ponsford.